


Always something heroic

by SerlinaBlack



Series: Unrelated Merlin stuff [6]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: ..... other than being kidnapped into slavery, ..... that's a tag, Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Arthur Knows About Merlin's Magic (Merlin), Arthur Knows About Morgana's Magic (Merlin), F/F, Good Morgana (Merlin), M/M, Mordern AU, Morgana has the only Pendragon braincell, Protective Arthur, Protective Arthur Pendragon (Merlin), Slave Merlin (Merlin), Slavery, and she refuses to share, but lets not dwell on that, merlin is confused baby, nothing bad happens to merlin, stressed Arthur Pendragon, the rating is only for the slavery, whooooo boy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-13
Updated: 2020-09-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:54:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26443747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SerlinaBlack/pseuds/SerlinaBlack
Summary: They always meet every time they're born, and they're always the only ones to remember. The round table, Morgana and Merlin became a family, and when one of them end up in less than ideal life, they all leap to help.(Spoiler : It was Merlin the one with bad life)
Relationships: Gwen/Morgana (Merlin), Merlin & Arthur Pendragon (Merlin), Merlin/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin), Morgana & Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)
Series: Unrelated Merlin stuff [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1922266
Comments: 8
Kudos: 256
Collections: Merthur Fics





	Always something heroic

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, Merlin's life is in fact terrible in this, Balinor and Hunith were killed in a home invasion when he's eight, he was in the foster system from eight to thirteen, at fourteen he was kidnapped from the streets, no one made a fuss since no one from the system made a complaint. he was with the slave ring for six years, during which they tried to brainwash him unsuccessfully.

Pendragon Inc has, ever since the beginning of the company, had it's finger in all kinds of pies across the world. And _look,_ Arthur knows every time after they're reborn his father gets a little…. Off the deep end. 

Or evil supreme overlord mode as Merlin took to calling it. 

Arthur doesn't know how the entire thing works, or how the round table and Morgana ties into it, or even why they seem to remember but some people like his father or Hunith never remember their previous lives but he's just learned to accept it now. 

(Merlin tried to explain it to him once, something to do with the sidhe and Camelot and some sort of familial bonding magic. Arthur tried to pay attention to it, but…. Listen, in the Victorian era Merlin's entire look was distracting alright?) 

So, anyway what he was saying was, while yes, the company did in fact dabble in some unsavory business back when his father was in grief, Mr, Armond's proposal was downright ludicrous. Really, Morgana and Arthur had perfected keeping their father from being as bad as he was the first time around sometime in the fifteenth century. and even then he'd never considered this.

He was, however, careful not to show all his incredulity to the man in front of him. Also how horrified he was. Clearly the ring is anything but small if they can just print out a list of the slaves they have and have someone like Armond waving it around in his face. 

"So.... You are.. what? Offering me a person?" He asked neutrally. Or as neutrally as he can considering the subject matter. It didn't seem to deter Armond at all. 

(It always baffled Merlin when while dealing with fools like this, they were easily swayed by Arthur's blank face. He didn't seem to realize not everyone had centuries of experience in dealing with Arthur's microexpressions. )

"Someone to listen to your every word and do whatever you want-" he continued waving the damn _catalogue_ in front of him and dropping the thing on his table as he flipped the pages. "-they were known to be well trained too." He smiled his evil slimy smile at him as he stopped flipping pages. 

To stop himself from rolling his eyes or glaring at the man he glanced down, and then felt his soul leave his body. 

Black hair as messy as it always had been. Blue defiant eyes that Arthur would never admit he wrote poetry about in the 17 th century. Missing the impish smile he always wore. Merlin glared back from the pages of a slave catalogue. 

******

The memories usually flooded in about a few hours after meeting the select few people. Arthur, Merlin, Morgana, Gwen, Elyan, Lancelot, Gwaine, Percival, Leon.

Arthur and Morgana were usually the ones who regained their memories first, if one discounted Gwen since Elyan was older than her. They're close enough in age that they're both usually babies when they meet, and they don't really have memories of lives without remembering who they are unlike the others. 

Around the fourth time they were born and Baby Arthur and Baby Morgana met, was when she stopped trying to suffocate him in his pillows. Around the fifth they learned to lean on each other and become brother and sister again. It was in their sixth life Morgana forced him to take his head out of his own arse and do something about his feelings for Merlin. Around the eighth Arthur made her face her feelings for Gwen. 

The rest of the round table were always there too, they all met sooner or later. But Arthur and Morgana always met first. 

This time around however, they all met each other fairly soon, the two sibling pairs met when Arthur was three, they met Leon when he was two, Gwaine, Percival and Lancelot when he was 6. All in all they thought they'd all meet sooner than in other lives. And then fifteen years later still no sign of his errant lover. 

They've looked for him. They've looked for him everywhere. Using the resources of the company under his father's nose sometimes, but they found neither hide nor hair of Merlin. Granted they didn't go looking into slave rings, but, in their defence slavery and Merlin never crossed their mind in that context. 

*******

The door to his office slammed open but Arthur didn't bother looking up from his glass. Was he drinking at 11 in the morning? Yes yes he was thank you very much. He needed it. 

"Armond wasn't crying when he left your room, why is that?" Morgana's arms were folded in disgruntlement. He looked up from his glass.

"I heard what he was going to propose Arthur, so I ask again, why wasn't he crying?" 

"Because i accepted his proposal." Arthur grunted. Looking away from her. He huffed when she punched him in the arm. 

"There better be a good-" he handed her the catalogue armond left. She took it quizzically and looked at it. "Is this supposed to make me feel better?" 

"Open it" he says as he finishes his glass and pours another generous glass. 

She flipped the pages as he took another long sip. Waiting for her to find the right page, when she did she paused, looked at him then the page then him and then the page again. Then she put it down and reached out her hand, he handed her the bottle. 

******

Something about meeting this particular buyer filled Merlin with a sense of finality that he couldn't quite shake. He tried, again and again, but it wasn't working and he couldn't for the life of him figure out why. 

He has been bought before, but no one, not a single buyer, actually took him to their home and kept him. He was gangly with pointy knees and pointy elbows that he knows how to use. He has a sharp tongue and overall way more trouble than he's worth. And he knows, he _knows_ this time won't be different, but he can't shake the feeling and it makes him agitated. 

Dave pushes him down and He can't even balance out because his hands are tied. He falls and skins his knees. They learned from the last time when he elbowed a buyer in the ribcage and then in the abdomen. Merlin takes a deep breath and maneuvers his way to standing back up. 

"What'd Armond say about this one anyway?" Gunther grunted. That's what he usually does, he grunts. All the time. It annoys Merlin to an unreasonable degree. 

"He said Armond's gonna be the one paying, but dude's got dough. " Dave grunts right back. Merlin scuffles his bare toe against the concrete. The trading place was a wearhouse this time so he doesn't have much to look at either. The last one was an old abandoned subway where there were some flyers on the wall he could squint at. 

"Then should we really put this one out? Maybe one of the better ones that'll leave a better impression?" Gunther scoffed at him and Merlin glared at the wall. 

"He wanted this one. Was pretty adamant about this one too." Dave shrugged. "Maybe give him a warning about it's the best we could do." 

The sound of a car interrupted the oh so noble conversation. The two brutes straightened. A draft blew in as a man with salt and pepper hair and portly figure walked in making Merlin shiver. 

"Is this the one ?" The man eyed him sceptically. "Thought he'd choose someone ...prettier." Merlin bristled, yeah he may not be pretty, but that should have been obvious from the picture they took of him. He'd say something scathing but the cloth in his mouth is sort of in the way. So he had to settle for glaring. 

"That's the one he chose." Dave crossed his arms with finality. "I should probably say he has a bad temperament. " 

Merlin wished he could eviscerate Dave. He wasn't an ill tempered dog. And no matter how much they treat him like one he will not change.  
"He is a virgin though." Gunther pointed out and Merlin glared at him. It's not his fault he never met anyone before getting kidnapped. So he never had a partner before he was fourteen and never had a chance since. Big deal.

"And is he-" before he could finish another car noise came and the man clamped his mouth shut. He straightened just as Dave and Gunther had when his car came in. So... He wasn't the one taking him then. Merlin had already sized the man up to where he should kick him too. A shame really, he looked particularly kickable. 

This time the door opened and another man walked in. _He_ did not, in fact, look kickable. Merlin would probably hurt his leg trying to kick him. Well..... Fuck. 

"Mr. Pendragon! Here he is. This is the one you chose right?" The salt and pepper haired man greeted the newcomer. And as he came into the light Merlin... Kind of lost his breath. The man who came in had the build of a football player. And with bright blond hair and blue eyes, the man reminded him of a sun god. Why was he here? 

The man stopped across Merlin glancing him over. His eyes stop at his knees. Oh right, they were bleeding earlier. He doesn't think they're bleeding still, but they must be a sight. The thin basketball shorts did nothing to protect them. And the worn shirt made him feel even more like a slave in front of his suit and coat. He couldn't imagine why though, he never did let what they wore get to him. Buyers were usually rich people, that's kind of how they could afford slaves. 

"What happened to his knees?" The man, Mr. Pendragon asks softly. 

"He fell a while ago. Don't worry he's got a good immune, it won't get infected or anything." Dave rushed to reassure. And ok, Merlin did have a good immune system, but it still hurt. 

The man glanced at Dave coldly. He would look impassive if it weren't for his lips pressed closed or the slight narrowing of his eyes. 

He's furious. Merlin thinks, then frowns at himself for thinking that. It doesn't look like anyone else noticed it, why would Merlin know if he's angry or not. 

"I'm sure a little antiseptic would go a long way." The portly man said jovially. "Should we get done with the transaction?" He added to the blond who nodded still looking cold 

"Yes, let's. Take the handcuffs and the gag off." He ordered. The two brutes shifted uneasily. 

"Think it'd be best if you take him with the cuffs and gags. He's a fighter." Gunther said after a long staring match with his partner.

Mr. Pendragon raised an eyebrow as if to say he already knew.  
"I don't think I asked if he was a fighter or not. "His voice is still cold. He stared Gunther down until he complied. Merlin rubbed his wrists as he watched Dave and the other man talk in the other corner, both took out their phones as if to confirm something. Dave nodded and made eye contact with Gunther, who grunted, again. They left him with the two men. Merlin felt the walls closing in on him and forced himself to breathe. There's no way this man was going to keep him. He's way more trouble than he's worth. He- he has to let him go, or return him at some point. 

"Well, I'll be off Mr. Pendragon. Enjoy your boy." The portly man winked, "unless you need some help-?" He asks. 

"No. I don't." He dismissed. Merlin got the feeling he didn't like the other man. Well... He got the feeling he didn't like anyone in the room except himself and Merlin. He doesn't really know what the other man thought of Merlin, since he hadn't said a word to him since he got here. 

The door opens again and Merlin shivers, and since his cuts are brought back to his attention, they sting with renewed vigor. 

"You must be freezing Merlin. What even is that shirt? Here-" Mr. Pendragon bundles him up in his coat. His very expensive looking coat, that probably needs a wash now that it's on Merlin. Merlin berates himself, since when does he care about others' coats needing washing? He bundles himself up. And it is warm, the coat itself and because of the person who was wearing it. 

"Come on, we need to get your bony arse warm, I- you're not wearing shoes. " He seemed to just notice the fact. 

"No I am not. They don't let me have it since I hid a knife in a shoe and tried to stab a buyer." He tries to scare him. Warm coat or not, the man still essentially bought him and god knows what he wants him for. 

"Good. Did you- uh, get something to eat? Do you want to go eat? Or, huh clothes, where are you gonna-?" The man who unnerved Dave and Gunther looked at a loss for words, looking around and fretting like- like a mother hen. This has to be a joke. 

The door to the warehouse opened again, this time slamming open. A woman walked in an impatient aura surrounding her. 

" _What_ could be taking so long?" She huffed approaching them. 

"He doesn't have any shoes Morgana." Arthur points out like it's a valid argument, like he hadn't walked in the warehouse barefoot at some point, like no one makes him walk just because he got what shoes he had taken away. 

The woman, Morgana, pinches the bridge of her nose, "Arthur, you brainless brute, what are you planning on using those walls of muscles for?" 

"Oh! Right. Right." He nodded to himself and picked Merlin up. Just..... Picked him up like a fairytale princess, like he weighs nothing. Merlin did. not. squeak. 

Morgana snorted but did little other than to lead them to a very expensive looking car. 

Ok, that's an important piece of information. The man can carry him like it's nothing, the physique is not just for show. Wonderful. That'll just make it harder for him to escape or get him to return Merlin. 

"Should we stop at a food place or something?" Mr. Pendragon questions after depositing Merlin on the front seat.  
"The rest are already raiding your house, Lance kicked Gwaine out of the kitchen." Morgana says from the backseat. "Any requests Merlin?" She turns to him. 

"Er- no?" 

"Alright- chocolate pudding it is." 

"Can you tell him to get the -" 

"Don't tell me to pass the message to make your disgusting protein food, I won't do it." Merlin looked at the rearview mirror to see her not look up from her phone. 

"I was gonna say soup. It's easy to go down and keep down." Mr. Pendragon rolled his eyes. 

Morgana stared at him for a moment too long then turned her eye to look at Merlin critically before nodding and going back to her phone. 

"-hot and sour-"

"What kind of monster-"

"-extra for Arthur-" Mr. Pendragon glared at her through the rearview mirror. Merlin got the feeling they were siblings. In fact, he blurted the thought out. 

"Yup. He's the knuckleheaded one. But you'll know that better than me" Morgana grins at him. 

"Will I? Or I could just injure either of you and run away." He pointed out. He had done that before. He got captured, but he did do it.

Mr. Pendragon sighed from next to him. He sounded almost relieved. There was something weird about the man. 

"Take a nap. We'll wake you up when we get there. The rest of us will probably overwhelm you " Mr. Pendragon says softly. 

Merlin tries his hardest to stop himself from falling asleep, but there was something about the man, and the woman, that made him feel more safe than he had felt since he was eight and the home invasion destroyed his life. He knows he shouldn't be calm, he shouldn't let his guard down. He knows as soon as he does he's vulnerable to these people who hold power over him already. But he was exhausted and he couldn't stop his eyelids from closing at the light purring of the car. 

_There was water under the table. That was all he could focus on. There were loud sounds coming from the other room. His father was screaming and it was the worst thing he ever heard and the floor looked black and wet where he last saw his mother._

_He hugged himself tightly and wound even tighter into himself. The water was cold and it was all over his shirt, and his mother would scold him for getting so wet in the cold water, only .... Only she probably wasn't going to scold him ever again was she?_

_The sounds stopped. He was wrong. The silence was worse than any terrible noise. He hugged himself tighter then unwoung when he was called from the other room,_

_"Merlin"_

_Was that his father?_

_"Merlin"_

_He ran to the other room._

_His father was on the floor and Merlin tried to get him off there, to pick him off the floor he grabbed the man with both his arms._

_Only_

_"Just hold me."_

Merlin wakes with a startled gasp. 

The car was no longer purring comfortably. Mr. Pendragon was looking at him concerned, from the window next to his head Morgana was doing the same. Merlin looks to both siblings confused. 

"Nightmare?" Morgana asks, looking sympathetic as she holds his side of the door open. 

Merlin is picked up by Arthur before he can say anything. 

"I don't imagine he was in the most pleasant of conditions with those people. Nightmare is kind of a no brainer -gana" Arthur replies for him and Morgana hums in agreement. They walk up to an elevator 

Merlin doesn't look at what floor they're going to, but he gets the feeling it was at the top floor.  
'Like a Prince at the top of a tower' a voice says in his head. He tells the voice to shove it. Just as he thought, they get off the elevator to a corridor that only has one door in the middle. Before either of the Pendragon siblings could open the door, (Arthur could do it, he's carrying Merlin but he didn't seem to weigh much to the man.) The door opened from the inside with a jerk to a beaming man, 

"Merlin! Good to have ya back!" The man hollered. Almost pulling Arthur in. 

There were six other people in the room. All but the woman looked like they could crush him with the flick of a finger. The lady looked kind, but yeah, he …. He wasn't getting out of this was he? 

"Which one of you got the First aid kit?" Arthur called out and he put Merlin on a couch. It was a nice couch. The kind he never thought he could get on. There were two other times where he was brought to the buyers home. Both the times he was told, explicitly, to sit or sleep on the floor. He only saw these sofas from afar(…. And well he did drop the entire wine bottle over one that one time, the first time he was told he couldn’t sit on the furniture.) 

He was brought to the present with a sting to his knee, (he keeps forgetting about those) Arthur was cleaning the cut with something, some kind of antiseptic. And Merlin, for the first time in a long time, felt tears slide down his face. 

"What the fuck is in that dettol Princess?" The man who greeted them exclaimed out. 

"Wha- it's dettol- why-? Merlin? Does it hurt? I should have warned you jeez-" 

"Arthur-, boys! He's overwhelmed." The kind looking woman called out softly. Merlin could suddenly barely see through his tears. He raised his hand to wipe at his face but Arthur beat him to it wiping the tears gently, 

"It's ok luv, we're not going anywhere. You're stuck with all of us you'll see. And we would never hurt you like that again." He murmured softly. And that…. That just opened the floodgates. Merlin sobbed like a baby. At one point he just slid from the couch and onto Arthur's lap, getting tears all over the man's obviously expensive clothes, he just sat there and let Merlin cry on him until he didn't have any tears left to cry anymore. Until his dry sobs petered out. And he just held him throughout. 

"Come on Mer, get some food in you before you fall asleep ok? " A man, the one who was standing next to the kind looking woman came in his field of vision, he was holding a mug. 

The soup was one of the best foods he had had in the past decade or so. He gulped down as much as he could, which was, admittedly not all of a single mug before the mug was taken from his unmoving hands. 

"Wanna go to sleep Merlin? It's ok, you can sleep." The words vibrated around him. It took him a while to realize that was because it was from Arthur, who was practically cradling him. But, Merlin fell asleep before he could do anything with that revelation. 

******

The rest were waiting for him when he came back from putting Merlin in his bed. Gwaine seemed to have taken liberties with his liquor cabinet. Arthur didn't care so much as long as he got something _strong_

"So, murder." Elyan proposed. 

"I agree." Gwaine says comparing two bottles and deciding to just bring both in with glasses. 

"As much as it pains me, we can't just go ahead and kill them." Lancelot tried to reason. 

"I'll cover the tracks." Morgana offered her face squished against Gwen's lap. 

"Maybe not ….all of them? Just…. You know…. Some." Elyan tried to bargain. 

"I'd say Merlin would want to kill them himself." Leon mused, "he'll probably wake up tomorrow ready for revenge." 

Arthur bit his lips, "but he wouldn't know everyone involved. Just those he came in contact with. And some of those could also be other victims too."

"So…. We'll have to make sure he gets everyone guilty. He'd probably feel terrible if he did something bad to someone who didn't realize what they're doing." Gwen nodded, running her fingers through Morgana's hair. 

"So, we're stepping in against the entire ring? Is it gonna be Pendragon Inc. or are we doing this incognito?" Elyan asks as he gets up to leaf through his overnight bag, taking out his laptop. 

"Both. Pendragon Inc. but keep it on the low for now. If we do have to call the police in then we might need to throw around some names." Arthur moved next to Elyan to watch his work. Gwaine finished handing the last of the drinks. 

There was a general ripple among them and then they all burst into work. 

*******

When Merlin woke up, the sun and the clock next to the bed indicated it was midday. The bed was the kind of sinfully soft that he usually associates with Arthur and the kind of cold he associates with no Arthur in the bed. He takes in the room, and takes a few moments to put his thoughts in order. The time after remembering is always the most disorienting. He was probably lucky he was asleep this time. 

He took a few deep breaths and glared at nothing for a while before walking out of the room, taking in the apartment. 

He seemed to have gone the right way because Arthur was sprawled across the couch. The same one he must've been on the previous night. There was a laptop open on his stomach the light from it long since given out. Percival was on the floor, with a cushion under his head, Gwaine's head on his stomach. 

Morgana was on the couch opposite to Arthur, which, really, who in Avalon's name needs two couches facing each other? Gwen next to her, they both seemed to have been sharing a laptop screen between them since they were cuddled up and fell asleep sitting. 

Merlin went ahead to Arthur first and ran his fingers through his hair. 

"They're all gonna have the worst cricks in their necks." Lancelot comments, leaning against the door opposite to the way he came from. 

"Why are they here anyway? This doesn’t look like a place with just one bedroom." He asks back looking behind the other man. 

"We were looking into the slave trade ring. Elyan's got pretty good at hacking." He shrugs. 

" That’s what we’re doing this century?” Merlin takes a seat next to Arthur, pulling his head onto his lap. Arthur, being the heat seeking octopus that he denies being immediately curled against him. 

Lancelot smiled ruefully, “Always have to do something heroic don’t we?” 

Later, They’ll reintroduce Merlin to the society with a face identity

Later, They’ll use Arnold to ensnare the entire ring and the ringleader

Later, They’ll confront Morgause who had to claw her way up in the underworld, Nimueh, who had helped her, Mordred, who didn’t even know how he got to that point

But for now, Merlin smiled ruefully back at Lancelot and let Arthur’s presence ground him.

**Author's Note:**

> Arthur is not an alcoholic. He's just stressed about his boyfriend.


End file.
